The St. John’s Episcopal Church community of 250 families and 600 parishioners would like to set the record straight on the many factual inaccuracies printed in recent letters to the editor.

The primary purpose of the St. John’s building project is to build a sanctuary (house of worship). The existing building, constructed in 1954, was designed and built as a dual-purpose parish hall/sanctuary, with the intention of building a permanent house of worship in the future. The sanctuary will be built near the hillside where the current entry to the property is located, which necessitates reconfiguring the parking and provides the opportunity to construct a new, safer entrance and exit.

Our concerns from the beginning have been safety and the flow of traffic with this plan. The driveway will flare out at Thornhill Road to provide much safer sightlines than the current exit on Alhambra Lane, where cars have to pull out into the crosswalk just to see oncoming traffic. The new driveway will significantly improve safety and traffic flow, and we have the studies to prove it. In addition, we will be able to install a fire hydrant in the middle of the property, helping to ensure fire safety not just for St. John’s property, but also for the neighbors.

When parents pull into our new driveway and parking grove, students will get to Thornhill School by walking toward Alhambra Lane and down the existing stairs, nowhere near Thornhill Road. In fact, more parents will be able to use our driveway and parking grove as an alternative to queuing up on Thornhill Road by the school entrance, with cars whizzing past them.

As part of the Environmental Impact Report process, independent consultants who report to the City of Oakland studied the project at great length and determined that our current plan provided the best alternative to achieve our traffic and fire safety goals.

We are committed to the environment of the area. The trees on Thornhill Drive were in poor condition long before St. John’s owned the property. Most of them are non-native and will be replaced with trees that are native species and will restore the ecology of the area.

We have proactively been in touch with neighbors and are eager for dialogue with the community, but let’s have that discussion based on facts versus inaccuracies and innuendo.

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